Students: Pvt engg colleges charging Rs 60k extra

Admissions to undergraduate professional courses have just begun but a committee monitoring the process has already received a flood of complaints from students, who accused colleges of fleecing them by demanding excess fee up to Rs 60,000.

The Admission Overseeing Committee, constituted by the state government, is headed by a retired judge. Students and parents have approached the committee against several private engineering colleges.

The students and parents said that the private college managements were demanding up to Rs 60,000 per semester in addition to the fee fixed by the state government.

The complaints are not just from students who got admissions under Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (ComedK). Even students who got seats through Common Entrance Test (CET) ranking were also facing the problem.

“In the college where I got admission under CET quota, the college management is demanding extra fee in the name of placements, laboratory services, WiFi in the campus,” says one of the students who filed a complaint before the overseeing committee.

Some parents and students took to social media to air the grievances caused by the college managements and tagged the Chief Minister, demanding action against such institutions.

Meanwhile, the committee also issued a circular directing colleges not to collect or demand excess fee from students and parents and warned of legal action against the institutions if they continue to do so.

Despite warning and directions, the institutions continue to demand excess fee.

“My college is demanding excess fee which is almost same as the fee I had paid to get the seat,” said another student who got seat at one of the private engineering colleges in Bengaluru.

The fee fixed by the government for undergraduate engineering seats at private engineering colleges is Rs 58,800 for CET seats and Rs 2,01,960 under ComedK. A university fee of around Rs 20,000 is charged for both categories. Though private college managements have agreed for the fee fixed and signed the consensual agreement with the government, some colleges are demanding additional fee.

Sources from the admissions overseeing committee confirmed the receipt of complaints and said notices are being issued to college managements. “We are receiving complaints on excess fee and issuing notices to the colleges,” said a source from the committee.